Darya Makes Final Preparations for London.

With the 2012 London Olympics a little over a month away, this is an exciting time for Darya as she makes her final preparations for the Games.

These will be Darya’s first Olympic Games, although her reputation as a Junior Athletic Champion precedes her. A World Youth Champion in 2007, Darya’s best jump as a Junior was 7.03 metres in Zhukovsky in 2010. Her 7.03 metres jump was the second best all-time in the history of Junior Athletics. The only athlete to jump further as a Junior was the legendary German athlete Heike Dreschler, an Olympic Gold Medallist in Barcelona in 1992 and in Sydney 2000. So, Darya will enter the Olympic arena with very high hopes of success.

A slight dip in form saw Darya finish a distant 7th at the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships with a disappointing jump of 6.50 metres. However, this disappointment has only spurred Darya on. Darya recently finished 4th in the World Indoor Athletic Championships in Istanbul. Darya jumped 6.85 metres, very close to her personal best indoors of 1.87 metres. This was also her best competitive jump since her personal best 7.05 metres jump in Ostrava last year. So, Darya is coming into form at the right time!

Darya is currently in training in Sochi in Southern Russia. Preparations for London are going very well and Darya is in a very positive mood, as her fans can see from her frequent Facebook updates and Tweets. Darya is, of course, becoming almost as famous for her looks as her athletic abilities. When she is not on the track, Darya is usually very busy with modelling assignments and photo shoots. However, all of these will be put to one side for the next month or two as Darya sets her sights on fulfilling the ambition she has held since she was a child; to become an Olympic Gold Medallist.